Farmers, power developer at odds over health & other effects of high-voltage line*

A plan for high-voltage power lines will drive farmers out of business — or provide rural counties with a needed source of revenue, depending on who you ask.

The line, called the Grain Belt Express, would transmit about 3,500 megawatts of electricity along 600 kilovolt lines.
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The company estimates the line and new wind farms supplying it will create about 5,000 construction jobs and 500 long-term operations jobs, and deliver enough power for about 1.4 million homes.
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Farmers who live near the line’s proposed routes, however, are skeptical of benefits Clean Line has promised to Kansas and worry additional lines in their area would limit their ability to work their land.

Richard Strathman, who has a $2 million operation raising dairy heifers, said he worries the electricity from the lines will disturb the cows so they won’t lay down when they need to and will cause them to give less milk.
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“I’m very concerned how it’s going to affect the (cows’) pregnancies,” he said. “This thing has the potential to put me out of business.”
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Director of development for the Grain Belt Express project Mark Lawlor said direct current lines don’t give off stray voltage like some other types of lines, so neither people nor livestock will be in danger.
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